The present invention relates to endoscopic cutting devices and apparatus for medical procedures involving endoscopic procedures and cutting sutures.
Endoscopic devices have been commonly used for various procedures, typically in the abdominal area. Endoscopy is the examination and inspection of the interior of body organs, joints or cavities through an endoscope. Endoscopy allows physicians to peer through the body's passageways. An endoscopic procedure may be used to diagnose various conditions by close examination of internal organs and body structures, and may also guide therapy and repair, such as the removal of torn cartilage from the bearing surfaces of a joint. A biopsy, a procedure involving tissue sampling for pathologic testing, may also be performed under endoscopic guidance. For example, endoscopic procedures include the following known procedures: gastroscopy, sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy, esophago gastro duodenoscopy (EGD), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and bronchoscopy.
Typically, an endoscope uses two fiber optic lines. A “light fiber” emits light into a body cavity and an “image fiber” carries an image of the body cavity back to a viewing lens. Endoscopes may be used in conjunction with a camera or video recorder to document images of the inside of the joint or chronicle an endoscopic procedure. New endoscopes have digital capabilities for manipulating and enhancing the video images.
An endoscope typically includes at least one separate port to allow for administration of drugs, suction, or irrigation. Such port(s) may also be used to introduce small folding instruments such as forceps, scissors, brushes, snares or baskets for tissue excision, sampling, or other diagnostic and therapeutic work.
For example, endoscopic scissors and forceps may be configured to be used with a particular endoscope for sampling and excision purposes, and for cutting sutures. Although many current endoscopic scissors are adequate, improvements may be made. For instance, current endoscopic scissors typically have a pair of moveable jaws on which blades are disposed. As cuts are made distally from the apex of the jaws, the pressure or cutting effectiveness decreases. As a result, many cuts or dissections are relatively not sharp. When the scissor blades contact sutures (or other items to be cut) adjacent a distal portion of the blades, the results many times involve undesirable shearing.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an improved cutting device compatible with an endoscope.